{"id":32185,"date":"2023-04-16T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T08:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1816173"},"modified":"2023-04-16T21:03:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T19:03:52","slug":"raoul-moat-actor-says-playing-killer-was-most-frightening-thing-ever","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/raoul-moat-actor-says-playing-killer-was-most-frightening-thing-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Raoul Moat actor says playing killer was \u201cmost frightening thing ever\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Stokoe stars as Raoul Moat in the new ITV true crime drama. <\/p>

By Morgan Cormack\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 16 April 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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With ITV\u2019s The Hunt For Raoul Moat<\/a> arriving today (16th April), actor Matt Stokoe has spoken about how he was apprehensive to take on the role of the criminal.<\/p>\n

Ahead of release of the series, the Cursed and Bodyguard<\/a> star shared his initial thoughts when he learnt the drama was being made<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember getting a phone call to say they were making a drama about Raoul Moat,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI said to my agent, \u2018I really want to be part of that in whatever capacity I can be involved.\u2019 Thinking that usually several people would already have been cast and we would be talking about the peripheral parts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember thinking, \u2018That\u2019s going to be a bit of a hot potato. Tackling something like that. They\u2019re going to have to find somebody with a thick skin to play him.\u2019 Not thinking it was ever going to be my problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Matt Stokoe as Raoul Moat in The Hunt for Raoul Moat.<\/span><\/figcaption> World Productions for ITV1<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

He continued:\u00a0\u201cThen they came back to me a couple of days later and said, \u2018They don\u2019t want to see you for one of the police officers. They want to see you for the role of Moat.\u2019 It was the most frightening thing ever. Which is always a sign that you have to pursue it. That it\u2019s completely out of your comfort zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I went away and learned the limited material they had sent me and gave an interpretation of how I remembered he was. Based on half an hour\u2019s worth of online searching. Then a couple of weeks later a call came through and said, \u2018You\u2019re going to do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>

Similarly, when asked why the role was \u201cfrightening\u201d, he said: \u201cWith someone like Raoul Moat it\u2019s frightening because he still has people out there who support and endorse what he did. It\u2019s always difficult to play a real life character and one that society agrees is evil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to someone like Moat you don\u2019t want your decision to embody that character to in any way be viewed as an endorsement of his behaviour. You have to have empathy as an actor but you don\u2019t want to be seen as sympathetic to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n